


Setting the Matter Straight

by Merfilly



Category: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Mentor/Protégé
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-11-23 19:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11408955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Africa did not let Allan die. And he has come back with Thoughts about Tom.





	Setting the Matter Straight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/gifts).



Allan moved swiftly, relying on the fact that Tom always tried to bring up the rear, if his eyes weren't needed for the scout position. If Mina had been closer to the main party, he knew he could not have evaded her attention, nor Hyde's, but currently that one was locked away.

His hand went over Tom's mouth, and he strong-armed the rifle-holding hand down with his other, pulling the American firmly back into the shadows. He did so with a turn, so that Tom actually could see his assailant, and the boy's eyes went wide.

"Well, Sawyer, it seems you've been making quite the name for yourself with our mutual acquaintances," Allan said with a touch of pride, knowing it as such, for what he had pieced together since he emerged from Africa's grasp.

"Allan! It's really you?"

"Yes, and I am told that you have Matilda in your keeping."

Tom relaxed fully; Allan had been betting on the name of his rifle being enough to get the boy's cooperation. "I don't carry her with me on things like this. Who told, though?"

Allan chuckled; trust the former agent of the American government to want answers as to where the intelligence leak had been. "I managed to get Queequeg to open up a bit with the persuasion of good tobacco and stories of my own travels."

Tom nodded; the islander had joined them not long after Allan's supposed death, seeking Ishmael. Upon learning Ishmael had died in service to Nemo, the man had stayed as a loyal crewmember, saying something about being deposed as chieftain. 

"Africa didn't let you die after all," Tom said after a moment. "Well, you can help us finish up this case. There's a monster, probably something that got free from Moriarty's experiments, roving the lands, and we were asked by the Inter-Parliamentary Union to do something about it."

"Moving up from monarchs to full governments, I see." Allan nodded. "Having convinced a Thomas as to who I am, let us go see the other Doubters."

"Very funny, Allan," Tom said, but he did smile at the Biblical allusion. "Come on; let's catch up."

Catching up didn't take much; Allan was no longer feeling his age as severely as before the incident of dying, and Tom's absence had been noted. When they arrived, Nemo took one look, raised an eyebrow, then shrugged it away. Jekyll took a bit longer of a look, before he smiled and nodded.

"Welcome back, Quatermain." They took up the hunt, one man stronger, and the feeling to Allan was of coming home in ways that he had not thought to find among such a disparate group. Yet, even as he compared notes with the rest, he knew it was true. Much of that feeling was bound up in the young American, a fact he kept tucked as close to his chest as he kept his spectacles.

* * *

Mina looked from where their good captain was conversing, slowly, with the so-called monster they had found, and where Allan was sitting with Tom. Both were attentive, yet she could tell that they were both of a mind that words had gone unspoken too long. She just wondered if the words each held back were the ones the other wished to hear? She was not so gifted in tricks from her safely-dead-for-all-time suitor that she could skim their thoughts easily, yet the temptation was there.

It was of no matter, though, she realized. Allan might well be one of the most private men she had met in his emotional fare, but Tom wore his heart on his sleeve much of the time. One way or another, she would know how the conversation to come would play out.

She only hoped it did not cost the group either man; each of them brought a slightly different edge of skill to their sorties, even if they did have enough overlap to let one fill in when the other was absent.

She turned her attention back to the group at the head of the table, as the monster growled warningly in defiance of the accusation of being a murderer. It sounded as if things might be getting interesting in this case.

* * *

Tom looked up as Allan knocked on the open door of his cabin, now that they were away from Austria-Hungary and back at sea, with two new members of their crew. The creature had yet to accept a name, but Elizabeth Fran — no, she preferred Elizabeth Lavenza — being alive had helped settle them all to the creature's version of the truth.

Now they just had to find the scientist: her estranged husband and a certifiably mad but brilliant man. Again, they were headed for colder climes, but Tom could cope. Nothing really beat the ferocity of a Missouri winter in his memories, no matter how long it had been since he left his native lands. 

"Come on in."

Allan did so, then indicated the door. "Mind if I close it?"

"Go right ahead. Here for your lady?"

"Among other things," Allan answered as he shut the door and threw the lock so they would not be disturbed. Now Tom did quirk an eyebrow, but he indicated the other chair as he kept working on a new device to disorient his opponents. Nemo had coached him along on inventions, much as Mina had improved his understanding of maths and history. Henry had taken over his science education, while Rodney… well, Rodney knew a lot of things that left Tom wishing Huck was still around to learn with him.

Allan took the seat, and looked at what he was crafting with interest, even pulling his glasses out to look it over more closely. "Smoke pellets?"

"With an automatic striker, so they flare up after being thrown," Tom said, pleased that Allan had figured it out.

"Useful. Shape a few in flare capsules, and they could be fired into an enclosed area ahead of us as well."

"Good thought. I'll have to get the design for those capsules from the captain," Tom said easily, filing the suggestion away. "You're not in here to talk about my inventing, though."

"No, I am not."

Tom set his tools down and looked at the older man. He wanted to be as blunt as ever, but just looking at the man and seeing him whole, breathing, alive? It all made his mouth and throat go too dry for words. 

"Drink?" he offered instead, managing to get it out and half-rise from his chair.

"I prefer we both be quite sober for this, Tom," Allan said. "As I wish to clear up any misunderstandings before they begin, and be certain of where you and I stand in regards to the unity that was building in our teamwork."

Tom managed not to flinch as he settled back in his chair. "You… mean a lot to me, Allan. Everything you shared with me made me a stronger agent, a better man in a lot of ways. And losing you, thinking I had lost you, it slammed hard into all the things I was running from in trying to get Huck's killer."

Allan took those words in, said quickly before Tom could lose his nerve. "Yet you stayed, didn't 'run', as you put it, despite the loss," he commented.

Tom met Allan's eyes fully. "I had all of the others, and I had hope. Hope that you'd make it back."

"And now that I am?"

Tom itched to get up and move, prowl the cabin, but that was the boy he'd been. He knew everything was about to change, or end, and yet he had never been a coward. "I want to know where we stand, Allan. Am I your lost son's replacement? Or am I something else?"

Allan gave the bare hint of a smile, before answering. "Not something. Someone. Yes, at first you reminded me of him. But you are not he, and you are, distinctly, a man that has an infuriating habit of waltzing through my thoughts in a manner I thought long behind me with me last wife's death."

Tom's mouth dropped open a moment, then he closed it with an audible sound of teeth clacking together. He then let out a deep breath. "You're not upset that I'm thinking about you that way. And you're thinking about me that way." He shook his head. "Can a man get any luckier?"

"Perhaps if you stop talking long enough for us to explore the options, you might find there is far more skill than luck in your future," Allan said, his voice dropping a bit into tones that made Tom shiver with anticipation.

"Who am I to say 'no' when that sounds promising?" Tom asked, standing up from his chair, mirrored by Allan who came close enough to actually lay hands on him.

"Shut up and lead us to bed."

* * *

Allan woke first, having exhausted both himself and Tom in the course of proving just how much skill he _could_ bring to bear. He looked down at the young man, thought about all of his past losses and then took a deep breath.

No tomorrow was promised to any man. Together, they would face life… and whatever it brought their way.

**Author's Note:**

> I have seen Allan's rifle's name spelled in various fashions and went with the more common spelling I found.
> 
> The idea that the creature in Frankenstein was not inherently evil is one I enjoy seeing explored. I saw no reason not to tweak it so Elizabeth was saved from Victor by the creature as it holds with the motif of the movie.
> 
> That Huck was Tom's partner before the movie came from either the comic or the novelization, I believe. I choose to use it for my nefarious purposes here, mwahahah.


End file.
